


How You See Me

by HalfASlug



Series: prompts [9]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 10:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6850276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfASlug/pseuds/HalfASlug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor gets carried away and reveals thoughts he'd meant to keep secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How You See Me

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Scars

The Doctor could do nothing but stare when he saw Rose was covered in Scars. Given what they were doing and where they were, he maybe should’ve expected something like this to happen but it didn’t dull the shock. If only he could’ve been at his rightful place beside her… He could have prevented it.

“I leave you alone for five minutes,” he sighed.

She looked up from the crowd of children dressed in furry orange onesies with black manes around her and grinned at him. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”

He had to admit she had a point. Against every law of nature he was aware of, her statement was truer than normal. A couple of days under the Florida sun had tanned her skin, while the heat had her wearing shorts so short he had started referring to them as shortests.

He hadn’t quite decided if his little joke was funny enough to share with Rose yet. The humidity was playing havoc with his human body and he wasn’t sure of the repercussions. One joke below his usual high standard and Rose could decide she wanted to try and get back to the other Doctor. Possibly.

Rose giggled as the children in fancy dress ran after their next unsuspecting victim before turning her full blown smile towards him. She held her hand out for him to take, which he did (obviously) with a shy grin. The moment his fingers had twined with hers, she pulled him sharply against her and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

“I just survived a vicious lion attack,” she pointed out to him. “A congratulations wouldn’t go amiss.”

“A group of children dressed as lions doesn’t count as vicious in my book.”

Rose pouted but he held his ground. “I suppose they were a bit on the cute side,” she sighed.

The Doctor reared back in horror. “Cute? _Cute?_ They were dressed as Scar, Rose!” 

She shrugged and looked pointedly around them. A few metres away a small girl was dressed in a black robe, handing out bright red apples to people. “It is villain week. At Disney World. Makes sense for them to dress as Disney villains.”

“He killed Mufasa!”

“They’re kids.”

“Mufasa!”

With a failed attempt to hide an eye roll from him, Rose backed up a few steps until he unwillingly followed. “I thought you’d be happy they’d chosen a Lion King character.”

“Yeah, but not Scar,” he scoffed as he fell into step with her. “Not only did he kill Mufasa, there’s everything he did to Simba to take into consideration! Because of his monstrous and malicious master plan, poor Simba - a recently bereaved child! - had to grow up without any of his mother and friends in a strange place!”

The Cinderella Castle came into view at the end of the street as Rose pondered her response. The Doctor took the time to be grateful that of all the changes he’d discovered in Pete’s World in the few weeks he’d been here, the important things hadn’t changed.

Well… the important Disney things. The moment he got the chance he was inventing marmalade, the consequences be damned.

“Simba’s family got to see him later on though,” Rose reasoned. “It’s not like he died. And he made new friends. Pretty much got adopted, really.”

“And Timone and Pumba did a fantastic job raising him, but the fact remains that everyone back in Pride Rock thought he was gone forever and missed him growing up.” 

The Doctor abruptly came to a stop, causing Captain Hook to nearly slam into the back of him. The giant crocodile behind him took the opportunity to pounce to the delight of a nearby family.

“Kids grow up so fast,” the Doctor carried on as though there wasn’t a reptilian feast happening two feet away. “You blink and it feels like you’ve missed it. Especially when time travel is involved. For Sarabi and Nala, they didn’t even get the chance to see what made Simba _Simba._ They could see he was brave young lion, but _why?_ Sometimes the journey is the destination. He went on this huge voyage of personal discovery and came back to them - and they can barely recognise the brilliant person in front of them. And they want to know what happened. They _need_ to know.”

There was no way he could blame the climate on the way his ribs were tightening around his lungs as his tongue swelled behind his teeth.

“You’re still talking about cartoon lions, yeah?” Rose asked with a ghost of a laugh. It soon died out when he couldn’t do anything to reassure her.

A month had passed since they started their new forever and things were finally slipping into place for them. The nerves and uncertainty and morphed into the old affection and joy. This trip to Disney World was their first time travelling together. The destination had been chosen last minute and Jackie had complained about them leaving the minute she found out.

Some days it felt like no time had gone by at all.

However, some nights, Rose would sleep less than him. Her tense muscles would shiver under his reassuring touches as her short words fell on his deaf ears. The closed off look behind her eyes was one he’d spent centuries perfecting, after all.

“You don’t - you don’t recognise me?” Rose’s voice broke as the sunlight made a lone tear shine.

“I do!” The Doctor kicked himself for his phrasing. Most of the time, he could barely tell she was years older than when they first started travelling together, but there were moments when she didn't entirely look like Rose. Of course, he was probably the same and it didn't stop her looking like home.He pressed a kiss to her hand, still wrapped around one of his before cupping her cheek to brush her tears away. “I do. You’re everything I knew you could be,” he told her with a sad smile. “But I never wanted you to through everything you did to get there. Especially not alone.”

Rose drew in a shaky breath. In fact, her entire body was trembling. The Doctor wished more than ever that he knew what was going on in her brilliant mind.

“I never know exactly how you see me,” she whispered. Before he could respond, she reached up on tip toes to gently kiss him. He repressed the urge to hold her against him, to see if he could absorb her nightmares.

He wanted to merge everything that was hers with him so neither of them would be alone again.

Much too soon, Rose broke the kiss to rest her forehead against his. Her fringe was in his eyes and the uncomfortable texture of sticky heat was overloading him from every point of skin to skin contact.

He would’ve stayed in that position all night if he could have.

“You must know how proud I am of everything you are, Rose Tyler,” he murmured.

She smiled and he caught a glimpse of her tongue in the corner of her mouth. “I do now.”

Around them, children and adults alike laughed and chatted, while they were suspended in a moment, locked together and completely separate from their surroundings. It didn’t make a difference to the Doctor. As far as he was concerned, from now until the end of time, wherever Rose was would be the happiest place on Earth or whatever planet they were on to him.


End file.
